• CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      The comedy of errors that resulted in World War 1 seems to indicate that there is a group of time travelers trying to make sure this time line happens.

  • chaosCruiser@futurology.today
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    9 days ago

    I would go back in time and meet the people who wrote the first ever USB standard. Then I would convince them that all USB connectors have to be reversible from day one so that nobody will ever need to struggle with the 20/80 odds of getting it right on the first try. Come on, it’s two possibilities and the probability of the wrong one is at least 80%. What’s the deal with a connector like that?

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      9 days ago

      Accordingly to the USB inventor, he didn’t make it reversible right off the bat because it would need 2x more wires, circuits, and cost 2x more. So you probably [won’t be | weren’t]* able to convince him.

      Perhaps a better approach is to tell him that they should be clearly asymmetric, to both touch and sight. Like HDMI connectors are.

      *tense marking is fun in time travel.

    • Drunemeton@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      While you’re there make damn sure they create a coherent naming scheme that allows upgrade paths/versioning.

      Sincerely,
      USB 3.2 Gen 1×1
      USB 3.2 Gen 2×1
      USB 3.2 Gen 1×2
      USB 3.2 Gen 2×2

  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Go back to 1911 and convince Taft to concede the Republican nomination to Roosevelt. That allows Roosevelt to stomp Wilson, get the US into the war before Russia left, and get the war over with years earlier.

    This prevents both Stalin and Hitler from rising to power, and prevents most of the European theater of WW2, as well as a host of other knock-on effects.

    https://youtu.be/hLiI6kXZkZI?si=YJZMmkpOH4FZQiLt

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    I’d like to say something noble like warn Amelia Earhart, or hookup Adolph with some Bob Ross videos. But if I’m being honest, I would probably be selfish. I would tell past me to not fuck up quite a few things that past me royally fucked up.

    • Blackout@fedia.io
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      9 days ago

      Think of all the good I could do with a trillion dollars. I’d have to create a lot of destruction of other people’s wealth to get there but they will understand. I really need a trillion dollars!

      • bizarroland@fedia.io
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        9 days ago

        Got to do it in stages so it doesn’t look too premeditated.

        Start a online auction site where people can sell their stuff and you get a small cut of the profit.

        Then to help people on board start a payment processor company to ensure that the sellers ship their goods and that buyers pay.

        Once that has established, go public with it so that your stock sales can support the existence of your current portfolio while you dabble in other things that you know are very profitable.

        Once you have that going, which will take a few years. You can take a victory lap or two and maybe pay some PR firms to make you look like the cool rich kid on the internet that everyone wants to hang out with.

        Then you can do stuff like starting a spaceship company and helping to bring about the end of the internal combustion engine by starting an electric car company and doing some solar panel stuff.

        Eventually you’ll be the richest person on the planet and then you can get to doing the really fun stuff assuming you don’t like tank all of your personal reputation by blowing 20% of your net worth on a microblogging website or something while disavowing your trans daughter.

        I mean, if you’re smart enough to do all the other things surely you wouldn’t blow it at the five yard line like that.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    I think saving JFK would really alter the timeline. I doubt Nixon would have ever been president.

    Preventing the Iranian hostage crisis might also have had a huge impact.

    • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Have your read 11/22/63? It’s Stephen King 's take on what would happen if a time traveler tries to stop the JFK assassination.

      Great book, in my opinion.

  • sasquash@sopuli.xyz
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    9 days ago

    I would try to save the roman republic and prevent the roman kindgom. It would also be interesting to see what would have happend if they never switched to christianity.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      But the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) happened after the Roman Kingdom (753 BC–509 BC).

    • Skua@kbin.earth
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      9 days ago

      The kingdom was before the republic. I assume you want to prevent the empire?

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      9 days ago

      To prevent the empire would be more complicated than it looks like, since you got multiple rebellions and civil wars popping up as early as 135 BCE. They ultimately boiled down to

      • plebeians and/or slaves pissed due to poor living conditions
      • local peoples rebelling against Roman oppression
      • some patrician family wanting a larger slice of the pie

      And those are all problems that are damn hard to address without leading to plebeians being manipulated, local peoples being suppressed, and cutting down the power of the patricians by a central, strong government. That’s basically what Caesar tried to do, and Octavian achieved.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    I’d find the first motherfucker that started smoking stuff, whether it was first tobacco or whatever, and get rid of him/her before anyone else ever learned of the practice/habit.

    Would have been better health for countless people afterwards, if simply nobody ever knew…

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        No, eliminate the single individual that originally invented tobacco smoking. Then nobody from that point on would ever know and the problem would have never existed in the first place.

        Nip the problem directly at the source ya know. Guess you’re not all that good with these sort of hypothetical time travel thoughts…